Jordan protests against price rises

JORDAN announced on Tuesday it would raise fuel prices, including a 53 per cent hike on cooking gas, sparking nationwide protests in which two policemen were lightly wounded and a courthouse torched, police and state television said.

‘Trade and Industry Minister Hatem al-Halwani decided to adjust the price of fuel, raising the cost of household gas from 6.5 dinars to 10 dinars per cylinder,’ a 53 per cent rise, state TV said.

More than 2,000 people demonstrated in Amman against the price hike, chanting ‘[Prime Minister] Nsur out,’ and ‘long live the great people of Jordan’, holding banners that read ‘revolution of the hungry’, and ‘is this in our interest?’

Several hundred people demonstrated elsewhere, including in Karak where police said a courthouse was torched, and also in the other southern cities of Tafileh and Maan.

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Jordanians have been staging street protests to demand reform since last year, and more demonstrations are expected following the fuel price hike, which comes ahead of a January 23 general election, seen as key to introducing much-needed change.

A protester was shot dead in Jordan in the early hours of today morning as protests against fuel price rises swept the country: here.

7 thoughts on “Jordan protests against price rises”

Thousands of workers struck in strike action Sunday in Jordan to protest increasing fuel costs. As a result of the gas hike, the cost of household gas will rise by 53 percent.

The protest came just 48 hours after thousands demonstrated in the capital Amman to demand the king step down, despite this demand being punishable by imprisonment. Prior to this the police were mobilised against protesters on Wednesday and Thursday who were demonstrating against the price rise. In the clashes the police killed one person and injured many others.

According to Mahmud Abu Ghunayma, head of Jordan’s 15-member professional associations, “All 15 unions except the nurses’ union stopped working between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm (0800-1100 GMT) on Sunday”.

A teachers’ union spokesman announced that “the strike was observed by 70 to 75 percent of schools across the country”.

The strike excluded “emergency sectors,” including midwifery and nursing, said the head of the doctors’ union.

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Doctors continue strike in Egypt

A strike by Egyptian doctors entered its eight week this week with a protest being held in Alexandria. The doctors are demanding guaranteed better healthcare, a minimum wage, an increase in the budget for health from just three percent of the state budget to 15 percent and harsher penalties for those who attack hospitals. Recently attacks on hospitals have forced some emergency units to close.

Doctors remain on strike despite threats by the Ministry of Health to dock their pay or even terminate their employment.

The Daily News Egypt newspaper reported Tuesday, “The committee governing the partial doctors’ strike announced on Monday that hospitals have received leaflets outlining penalties that may be imposed on doctors who ‘are absent from work or who refuse to work.’”

In response a reply from the doctors stated they were “exercising their legitimate right to strike, a right guaranteed by many international agreements”.

The strike committee said doctors did not want to participate in a total strike as this would harm patients, but said that if individual doctors did so it would be the responsibility of Ministry of Health officials “who have not taken one serious step to solve the problems of the collapsed health system.”